INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Evening Star, Issue 16090, 15 April 1916, Page 9

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

SUGGESTED CAUSE AND REMEDIES. A Wellington doctor of high standing writes to the editor of the Christchurch ' Press': I have, been thinking out the infantile paralysis question, and I am certain it is a fly infection, and nothing else. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: 1. It spreads all over the community simultaneously, not by the trade routes, for even children in the backblccks who have never been in contact have got it. 2. It is more prevalent in the country. Why? Because manure is all over the place, and flies aro there in greater numbers because of the manure. 3. In Wellington tie greater number of cases have been from the- Newtown end of the town, where the stables are and the Zoo. 4. The reason babies get it is, I am certain, through fly-infested milk. I would recommend that—1. All children's food be clean and kept away from fly infection; that the milk be boiled and the cups kept clean; and, in fact, that all food bo kept free from contamination* 2. That children wash their hands and faces before meals. 3. That raw fruit be made clean before being eaten. I should be very much interested to learn if any baby who has been solely breast-fed has contracted the disease. The remedy boils itself down to "Swat that fly," which we are not doing, though there is, no doubt it is just as dangerous as the mosquito in malaria-infected conntries.